The Court of Appeal has set aside the judgement of the National and States Houses of Assembly Election Tribunal which ordered a rerun in Yabo/Shagari federal constituency of the House of Representatives....READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE ▶▶
The first rerun was won by the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Umar Yusuf Yabo.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Umar, filed another petition at the tribunal which was decided in his favour as the judges called for another rerun in two polling units
However, Yusuf-Yabo contested against the judgement at the Appellate court just as Umar filed a cross-appeal.
In their unanimous judgement, the lead judge, Justice Hamma Akawu Barka, stated that the tribunal erred to have ordered another rerun elections in Mazoji Magaji 003 and Shiyar Majikira MPS 001 Polling Units.
“Since there was evidence showing that elections in these polling units were persistently disrupted and under Paragraph 100(v) of INEC’s Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections 2022, INEC was under no further obligation to conduct another re – run elections in the said polling units,” he said
The judge, however, set aside the decision of the tribunal as it relates to the two polling units and affirmed the PDP candidate as the winner of the rerun election conducted by INEC on February 3, 2024.
The Court also found no merit in the cross appeal filed by candidate of the APC and dismissed it.
The PDP candidate had been declared winner of the 2023 election in the constituency but his APC opponent challenged his victory in court, where a rerun was declared.
After winning the rerun, the APC candidate challenged the outcome again and the tribunal ruled in his favour.
However, the appellate court has overruled the tribunal.
